September 2, 2017

Yesterday was another good day on the bands and I managed to put another
50 FT8 contacts in the log. I’ve now made over 500 contacts since my
first FT8 contact a little
more than a month ago. The preoccupation with this single mode is
driving my 2017 operating stats higher than usual and most heavily in
the digital column.

I generally log 300-500 contacts a year, and that mostly from casual CW
activity. During years when I’ve spent time contesting, those numbers
double. For the last several years I’ve tried, with little success, to
spend more time on phone. But with abysmal band conditions and a modest
shack, I’ve tended to stick with CW because of the advantage it provides
given these circumstances.

HF digital work has been completely foreign to me. I played with RTTY
way back when it required an actual machine to operate. More recently, I
made a dozen or so RTTY contacts in 2014 using the built-in function on
an IC-7100 where I pushed buttons to send pre-programmed messages and
decoded replies on its screen.

Notable contacts made yesterday included my second FT8 contact with Joe
Taylor, W1JT the guy who invented these JT modes and a Nobel Prize
winning
physicist to boot. I also worked Steve Bragg, WA9MVA the guy who
invented the SmartBeaconing algorithm used by APRS enthusiasts. And then
I worked David, K2DBK who I’ve known as a ham radio
blogger for many years as well as someone I
often chat with on Twitter.

In DX, I worked (and have already received confirmation) England, Spain,
Italy, the Canary Islands, and perhaps most notably, Alaska. And this
one confirmed our contact via LoTW within minutes. If I can manage the
same with someone in Hawaii this week, I’ll add FT8 to my other WAS
achievements.

Not bad for just a few weeks with an entirely new mode and outlook on
the efficacy of HF radio during this Modern Maunder.